REHYDRATING LANDSCAPES: KEEPING WATER IN YOUR SOIL

Rehydrating landscapes relies on small and slow solutions, and therefore the benefits start small and build over time. Benefits include reduced erosion and salinity and increased soil health and productivity. But they also increase your property’s resilience to fire, drought and some aspects of flooding; and are a key part of any permaculture disaster risk management plan.

BUILD ORGANIC MATTER

The best and simplest way to rehydrate landscapes is to build organic matter – or humus – in the soil. Lush, healthy soil with a rich structure and diverse soil life enables water to infiltrate deeply into hard, dry or clay soils. It also creates an environment that retains water because of the capacity of humus, the soil’s organic component, to store it. There are a number of ways to build soil humus:

• Adding• Mulching reduces evaporation and adds organic matter to the soil as it breaks down. Good mulch options include utilising an otherwise waste product like spoilt hay, animal bedding or fallen leaf litter. Sugar cane mulch or pea straw are commercially-produced options.• ‘Chop and drop’ mulching is where perennial plants and trees are heavily pruned and the clippings added to the soil. Both the clippings as mulch and the root network underground add to the organic matter in the soil.• Paddock slashing/green manure crop. Slashing paddocks of oxidised or otherwise unused pasture or using a mulching mower returns the organic matter to the surface of the soil. In smaller gardens, another way is to grow a green manure crop and plough it or crimp it to return it to the soil.